Actor Levar Burton has brought the old PBS 'Reading Rainbow' show back to life as an iPad app. / Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY

by Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY

by Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES - LeVar Burton's gamble paid off. His RRKidz company bought the rights to the PBS Reading Rainbow show he hosted for 26 years in order to re-imagine it as an app for the iPad. Since its release last year, more than 1.5 million books and videos have been read or watched on the app, a free download that comes with a $9.99 monthly subscription cost.

The app is the first of many to come, says Burton (Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, TNT's Perception). The actor and entrepreneur is such a frequent Twitter user - with more than 1.7 million followers - that he begins and ends each day with a tweet. Here's more of Burton's take on tech:

GOOD MORNING, Y'ALL

After awaking at 7 a.m., Burton reaches for his iPad, checks his e-mail, responds, then opens his Twitter app, where he tweets "Good Morning, Y'all" to start the conversation. By the end of the day, he's chimed in 15 to 20 times. "People actually respond. They say good morning and good night. I've had people tell me their day wasn't complete without that 'good morning.' "

The app is Apple iOS-only, but an Android version will be out in May. With more than 1.5 million books and videos accessed on the app so far, "That's 30,000 books a week. I don't think there's a bricks-and-mortar library that can deliver 30,000 books a week to kids. That's pretty cool."

DEVICES

Beyond the iPad and iPhone, he loves his $400 Parrot Zik wireless headphones. "They are the solution. I was big on Bose early on, then switched to Beats by Dr. Dre, but I wanted a wireless headphone that let me speak on the phone and listen to music at a quality I'm accustomed to."

APPS ON HIS IPAD

Netflix, the Parrot app to run the Zik headphones, Yelp, travel apps such as FlightTrack (free for Apple and Android) Virgin Atlantic and the BART app to track train times for the San Francisco Bay Area transit system.

He also has many news sources, including the BBC, Associated Press, USA TODAY, CNN and Al Jazeera, which he says is "an excellent news reporting agency. They have more integrity than a lot of news sources I've been watching a lot longer." Says Burton: "I find out everything I need to find on my Twitter feed, based on the people I follow. I feel absolutely informed. I don't feel I'm missing anything."

WHAT HE'S READING ON HIS IPAD

The Elements - a book that's also an app "blew my mind." And he's reading a lot of classics, including The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Autobiography of a Yogi.